The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act established policy for the management of the OCS leasing program and for the protection of marine and coastal environments. Currently the Marine Minerals Program utilizes three types of research including, Marine Mineral Related Studies, Marine Mineral Resource Evaluations, and Hurricane Recovery Data Collection in the Gulf of Mexico. The studies information is used by MMS analysis to evaluate the effects of specific proposed dredging operations, as required under current environmental laws and legislation. The results are also incorporated, as appropriate, in lease requirements and stipulations for the dredging of OCS sand.

Marine Mineral Studies Marine Mineral Resource Evaluation Gulf Coast Hurricane Recovery Initiative

Marine Mineral Studies strives to fulfill MMS’s environmental responsibilities which include: assessing the effects of OCS activities on natural, historical, and human resources and the appropriate monitoring and mitigating of those effects. The Environmental Studies Program (ESP) is required by the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, as amended in 1978 (OCSLA) to provide information for sound decision-making and management. The ESP conducts research across the spectrum of the physical, biological and socioeconomic environments as required by the OCSLAA and the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA).

Federal OCS sand and gravel resources must be wisely managed to ensure that environmental damage to the marine and coastal environments is minimized, mitigated, or does not occur. The MMS developed a Strategic Studies Plan that focused on integrating the collected resource data provided through the State/Federal cooperative efforts with environmental information to not only identify suitable OCS sand deposits, but also to provide needed environmental information to make decisions regarding the use of Federal sand for future beach nourishment activities.

Marine Mineral Resource Evaluations have historically been completed through cooperative agreements and have been used for joint sand evaluation projects with coastal states and environmental studies and other research projects through universities. Cooperative agreements with four Gulf of Mexico states (Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas) have been finalized to provide funding from the recently allocated $1.28 million Katrina/Rita hurricane relief funds to undertake work to locate new sources of offshore sand available for coastal damage repair caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Since 1992, MMS has spent over $11 million for marine mineral environmental studies. Site-specific, interdisciplinary studies have been conducted in identified sand borrow areas to provide basic information on the biological character of resident benthic communities, as well as the evaluation of potential dredging effects on the local wave and current regime.

  Summary of MMS Sand and Gravel Environmental Research
     (September 25, 2006)

Program Highlights:

  First MMS Marine Minerals Program Information Transfer Meeting
      June 20-22, 2006, Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront, Melbourne, FL.

  MMS Sand and Gravel Environmental Studies Theme Section in the Journal
      of Coastal Research

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Last Updated: 12/03/2008, 12:25 PM